USA > Kansas > Atchison County > History of Atchison County, Kansas > Part 86
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Calvin Bushey was reared to young manhood on his father's farm. When President Lincoln called for troops, with which to quell the rebellion of the southern states, lie responded and enlisted in August of 1862, in Company K, One Hundred and twenty-sixth regiment, Pennsylvania infantry, for a period of eight months, but served one and one-half years in all. He par- ticipated in the great battles of Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. After Mr. Bushey received his honorable discharge from the service he studied in Hayesville Institute for one year and was then engaged in mercantile business for two years, and after his marriage in 1867 came to Kansas to make his fortune. He and his young wife came directly to Atchison county and bought 160 acres of land six miles southeast of Muscotah. Not being exactly satisfied with this farm they sold it three years later and bought a quarter section of land three miles southeast of Muscotah. This land was all raw prairie at the time of purchase and it was necessary for Mr. Bushey to place all the improvements on it. He cultivated this farm until 1903 when he and Mrs. Bushey retired to a home in Muscotah. He sold the old homestead for a good price and invested in 120 acres of land southwest of Muscotah which is being cultivated by his son.
Mr. Bushey was married in January of 1867 to Miss Eva J. Taylor, who has borne him the following children : Mrs. Myrtle Belle, wife of J. D. Miller, garage proprietor and farmer, of Muscotah; John C., farmer and stock buyer, of Muscotah: Esther, wife of J. N. Roach, a farmer, living near Muscotah ; Chastine Dwight Bushey, a farmer; and two children died in infancy. The mother of these children was born September 20, 1842, in Defiance, Ohio ( at that time Paulding county, Ohio), a daughter of John and Lucretia ( Bell) Taylor, the former a native of Huntingdon, Pa., and the latter a native of Nova Scotia. John Taylor was a son of William Taylor, who emigrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania, whence he came to Ohio and made a perma- nent settlement. John Taylor was a prominent man in his section of Ohio and served as a member of the Ohio legislature in 1860, 1862, 1863. 1864 .. 1865 and 1866, six years in all. He also served as a justice of the peace and was probate judge of Ashland county, Ohio, for twelve years. He died in Ash- land, Ohio, in 1881. The Taylor children were as follows : Mrs. Eva Bushey. William, Arabella, Wilson, Don Fernando, Lavona, and Emma Luverna. Mrs. Bushey is a well educated lady and taught school in Ohio. It was at Perrysville, Ohio, that Calvin and Eva Bushey first met. Calvin had left his home in Pennsylvania, and after studying at the Hayesville Academy he was employed at Perrysville, Ohio, keeping store, attending the railroad
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
office, the express office, and was general all-round railway factotum, as well as managing a general store. The future Mrs. Bushey came to the store one day to buy a pair of shoes and Calvin fell a victim to her charms while attending to her wants. They became friends; the friendship ripened into love, and marriage ensued, which has been one of the happiest on record.
Mr. and Mrs. Bushey are members of the Congregational church and contribute to the support of this religious denomination. He is a Republican in politics and is a member of the local grand army post. This well known and highly respected couple have a total of twenty-one grandchildren, as fol- lows: Mrs. Olive Laughlin, Eva, Nannie, Marguerite, Lillie, Josephine, Julia, children of Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Miller ; Helen, a teacher, Ruth, also a teacher, Calvin Dwight, Mildred, and Dorothy, and Louis, children of John C. Bushey ; Charles Calvin, Mrs. Bertie Yazel, and Gail, children of Mrs. Esther Roach; Paul Everett, Ralph, Dessa, Essa, and Claude, children of Chastine Dwight Bushey. They have one great-grandchild, Margaret, daughter of Mrs. Olive Laughlin.
MARTIN C. VANSELL.
Forty-six years ago Martin C. Vansell, pioneer settler of Grasshopper township and one of the best known farmers and live stock breeders of Atch- ison county, landed in Muscotah with a cash capital of five dollars. During the forty-six or more years he has lived in the vicinity of Muscotah he has risen to become one of the wealthy and substantial landed proprietors of the county and has reared to maturity a fine family of sons and daughters, edu- cated them and given them a start in life. What more honors can a man wish for than these? Could any citizen contribute more to the upbuilding of his State and county than this pioneer ?
Mr. Vansell was born of old southern stock, on a plantation in Union county, Tennessee, October 24, 1854. He was a son of Dr. Elias Vansell, of German descent. His mother was before her marriage. Talitha Willis, born and reared in Tennessee, and a daughter of Moses Willis, whose farm ad- joined the Vansell homestead on the river bottoms. She was of English descent. There were seven children in the family of Elias and Talitha Vansell, of which M. C. was the youngest. The ancestral home of the Van- sells was a large plantation which stretched for one and one-half miles along the banks of the Clinch river in Tennessee, and before the Civil war the hand
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
was cultivated by slaves. Dr. Vansell was a physician of fine education and exceptional talent.
When a boy M. C. Vansell's education was cut short by the troubles which beset the neighborhood during the Civil war when all schools in the .State were closed and Tennessee was torn by the marching and ravaging of contending armies. The fortunes of the Willisses and Vansells suffered an eclipse for the time being and when fifteen years of age he decided to leave the old home and try his fortune in a newer land. He set out for Dade county, Missouri, with a party of men who were en route to the wild country of southwest Missouri. There was little to induce the boy to remain at home as his father had died and his mother had re-married. Upon his arrival ·in Dade county he was given work as a cow-boy on a big cattle ranch owned by David Scott ind George Igue, brothers-in-law. Young Vansell at that time was a fair horseman and his work consisted in driving herds of cattle to the ranch from Indian Territory and Texas. The nearest point of supply to the ranch was at Sedalia, 100 miles away. His next move was to the State of Kansas, and this migration came about in this wise: In the year 1856 his uncle. Martin C. Willis, had gone from Tennessee to Brown county, Kansas, where he had preempted land and become quite wealthy. This uncle heard that his nephew was working on the cattle ranch in Missouri and sent for him to come to his home in Brown county. Although quite in love with the wild free life of the cattle ranch, he heeded his uncle's request and joined him at his home. For eighteen months after going to his uncle's home he attended school and was then employed by his uncle and others as a farm hand for some years. On July 17, 1870. he stepped off the train at Muscotah, Kan .. with a cash capital of five dollars in his pocket. He worked at farm labor until he was twenty-one years of age and then began operating on his own account. Mr. Vansell has always been somewhat of a trader. The first deal which he ever made in his life was the purchase of a horse in Muscotah which involved an outlay of thirty-five dollars for horse, saddle and bridle. He later sold this animal for sixty-five dollars, took a note in payment, but, sad to relate, the note was never paid and he lost the whole amount. When he became of age he traded a span of mules, of which he had become the owner, for his first forty acres of land which he had farmed on shares, and with the money earned had bought the mules. This trade was made with a Kickapoo Indian. He fenced the forty-acre tract and rented it to a son-in-law of the Indian who had formerly owned it, and finally traded the land for some colts, five cows and twenty-five head of hogs. In a short time afterwards he
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
bought an eighty-acre tract with borrowed money and during the first sun- mer broke up seventy acres of his eighty, and in the fall built a home for himself. The following winter he sowed seventy acres of the tract in wheat and then sold the land at a good profit in November of that year. The fol- lowing February he bought 160 acres of land, comprising the old townsite of Cayuga in Grasshopper township. Mr. Vansell cultivated this tract for about two years and then sold it at a profit. In 1882 he bought the quarter section which is now the Vansell home place. He Las aldel to his qu s- sessions since that time until he is now the owner of 362 acres of land, 320 acres of which is all in one body. It is one of the finest and best improved farms in Atchison county. When Mr. Vansell settled on this land there were little or no improvements. He now has a large modern ten-room house, two large barns, hog and carriage houses, a big double corn-crib and granary, a horse harn, and a special cattle barn. The Vansell farm also loasts a 250-ton concrete silo, forty-eight feet in height and sixteen feet in diameter. From the start of his successful agricultural career Mr. Vansell has handled pure bred live stock, and he is widely known as a breeder of thoroughbred Shorthorn cattle, Poland China hogs, and standard black Percheron horses. In addition to this he has some standard trotting horses which are his pride. Since the start of his career Mr. Vansell has never bred any but the purest strains of live stock on his ranch and keeps from forty to sixty head of pure bred cattle on his place at all times.
Mr. Vansell was united in marriage with Miss Alice Trimble, February 23, 1882, and this union has been blessed with the following children: Lena, wife of Frank Campbell, of Horton, Kan .: Ralph. at home, manages the Vansell home farm; Ray, a student for two years in the State Agricul- tural College at Manhattan, Kan., and is now operating a cattle ranch in Montana : George, a graduate of Kansas University, class of 1915. and now employed as an entomologist by the State of Kentucky, located in Lexington ; Erma. wife of T. C. Whittaker, of Nortonville, Kan .. and Willis Blaine, who died at the age of seventeen years in July. 1904. Mr. Vansell has given each of his children a good education. His two daughters are graduates of the Atchison County High School, and his son, Ralph, is a graduate of the Vet- erinary College of Kansas City, and Ray studied for two years in the Man- hattan State Agricultural College. Mrs. Alice (Trimble) Vansell, mother of the foregoing children, was born May 23, 1854, in Fayette county, Ohio, a daughter of Nathaniel and Jane (Lorimer) Trimble, natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania, respectively, and who were pioneers of Johnson county, Mis- souri, settling there in 1868.
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
Mr. Vansell is an independent Republican in his political affiliations, and refuses to wear a party yoke when his conscience and knowledge lead him to think independently, and make up his own mind concerning the qualifi- cations of candidates or the merits of political principles at issue. Aside from his extensive farming interests he is a stockholder of the Farmers State Bank of Muscotah. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen and is religiously connected with the Congregational church. Mr. Vansell is a broad-minded and well read citizen who keeps abreast of the times and stands high in his community. In a way he is a philosopher who holds to the correct idea that some men or too many men never grow up and take the serious view of life which they should in order to achieve the success which is their right and in justice to those dependent upon them.
FRANK W. BISHOP.
Frank Wilson Bishop, live stock dealer and broker, and leading citizen of Effingham, Kan., has spent the greater part of his sixty-one years of life in Atchison county. When a boy he knew what it was to endure the hard- ships of the frontier and had little opportunity for schooling until he had attained the age of sixteen years. He is a descendant of a fine old colonial family which can trace their ancestry back to the early days of the settlement of New England. His forebears were Puritans, and he is a direct lineal descendant of Governor Bishop of Connecticut. A grandfather, Levi Bishop, was a soldier in the regular United States army and fought in the War of 1812. On the maternal side of his grandfather's family he is a descendant of the old Higgins family of New York, which numbers among their progeny Governor Higgins. The Bishops for many generations have been military men and in practically every generation the annals of the country show that members of the family fought in the various wars in which this country has been engaged.
Mr. Bishop was born December 12, 1854, in Alleghany county; New York, a son of Lucius Hazen and Betsy Morse ( Wilson) Bishop, the former a native of Windsor, Vt., and the latter having been born in Whiteside, N. Y. Lucius was the son of Levi Bishop, who served his country in the War of 1812 as a regularly enlisted soldier. The second wife of Lucius Bishop was a Miss Higgins of the Higgins family of New York. It is worthy of note
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
that while the Bishops were soldiers and fighting men who believed m serving the Nanny on the battlefields of its wars, the Higgins family were as a class opposed to warfare and it is not recorded that any of the members of the family enlisted in behalf of their country. They were men of letters, teachers, authors and Statesmen rather than warriors. The father of Levi Bishop was a soldier in the Revolution, according to tradition. The Bishop family left the old home in Alleghany county, New York, in April of 1859. Lucius Bishop having previously made a first trip in 1857 and selected a quarter sec- tion of land just north of Monrovia, Atchison county, Kansas, for his home site. He returned home and brought his family to Kansas with the intention of making a permanent home in Atchison county, and thus giving his children a better opportunity for gaining ? livelihood than the older eastern country afforded. On his previous trip he had made arrangements for the erection of a home, and an abiding place was already for the family to occupy when they came here. Frank W. and his mother landed from the Missouri river steamer, which they boarded at St. Louis and he recalls that the day they landed at the foot of Commercial street in Atchison was very rainy and disagreeable. The family had taken the overland train at Belmont, N. Y., and rode by rail as far as St. Louis and then boarded the "Ben Louis," which carried them to Atchison. They breakfasted in town and then made the trip to the claim by wagon. The outlook and surroundings of the vicinity of the family home were not encouraging, and it required considerable courage to get ready to face the struggle for a livelihood in what was then almost a barren wilder- ness with few settlers in the neighborhood. Every fall the members of the family had the ague, which did not entirely disappear for many years. There was also some trouble with the Indians, and the border warfare added its quota of troubles to beset this pioneer family. Lucius Bishop served in Com- pany F. Twelfth regiment of Kansas cavalry, under Capt. A. S. Best in the battle of Westport, which resulted in repelling General Price and his army of invasion. The elder Bishop prospered as the years passed, and in old age he and his faithful helpmeet left the farm and retired to a comfortable home in Effingham, where they both died. Lucius Bishop was born January 6, 1824, and died August 9. 1905. Betsy Ann Bishop was born in 1832, and died March 31, 1907. They were the parents of the following children: Frank Wilson, with whom this review is intimately concerned: Willis E., who re- sides on the home farm near Monrovia: Amelia Ann, wife of C. H. Oliver, both deceased, who were the parents of three sons and two daughters; Sarah H., wife of Hugh N. Gillan, of Hill City, Kan. The two daughters were
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
twins. A sister, Helen Bishop, accompanied Lucius C. to Kansas. She was the oklest of the family, dying July 6. 1913, at the advanced age of ninety-two years. Helen Bishop was born in Randolph, Vt., March 12, 1831, and came to Kansas in 1858. She began teaching when sixteen years of age, receiv- ing one dollar per week and boarded around. At the end of nine years she was receiving two dollars per week. She taught several years in Atchison county, and conducted a private school at Monrovia. She taught at Mon- rovia and Lancaster. She was one of the pioneer advocates of teaching domestic science in the schools and was far ahead of her time. She advo- cated progressive teaching methods in the seventies, which are now in prac- tice. She was a thinker and was an advocate of purity in living. After the death of her parents she made her home with Frank W. Bishop.
Frank W. Bishop was reared to young manhood on the pioneer farm, and had little or no schooling until he attained the age of sixteen years, at which time he realized the necessity of securing an education and managed to attend a short term at the State College at Manhattan, Kan. His father purchased a fine tract of farm land in 1873, consisting of 160 acres which Frank leased from him for a few years and then purchased. He practically built up the farm from a barren tract of prairie land to be one of the excel- lent producing farms in Atchison county. He erected all buildings on the place and cultivated the land very successfully until 1908, when he removed to Effingham to be better care for the extensive live stock business which he had begun in 1895. Mr. Bishop has one of the most attractive homes in this beautiful city, which was formerly the Potter property and maintains a down-town office where he looks after his business affairs. He is not only a buyer and shipper of live stock but is principally a broker, buying stock in the city yards in carload lots for his farmer patrons who feed them on their farms for the market. In this manner in the capacity of broker he does a very extensive business annually.
Mr. Bishop was married in 1880 to Miss Viola T. Horton, of Atchison county, whose demise occurred in 1886, leaving three children, as follows : Ernest L., a farmer, of Atchison county; Carl A., who is first sergeant of Company I. engineering division. United States regular army, and who is on duty in the Hawaian Islands: one child died in infancy. In 1890 Mr. Bishop was again married to Miss Mary E. Scott, of Tama county, Iowa, a daughter of Robert A. and Anne (Cannon) Scott, natives of Scotland, the former horn in Kirkcudbrightshire, and the latter born in Wigtonshire. The Scotts came to America in 1880. Robert was a stonemason and was one of
HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
the builders of the United States treasury building at Washington. 16 1870 the Scotts settled on a farm in Tama county, Iowa, and reared eight chil- dren. Robert A. and Anne were married May 26, 1848. Robert died November 24, 1911, aged eighty-five years, and Anne Scott died May 18. 1905, aged eighty years.
Mr. Bishop is a Democrat in his political affiliations, and has held local city offices, doing his duty as a citizen when called upon by his fellow citizens. Mrs. Bishop is a member of the Presbyterian church, of which Mr. Bishop is a supporter.
WILLIAM RYAN.
William Ryan, former chief of police of the city of Atchison and pros- perous farmer and iron moulder of Walnut township, was born in Ottawa, Ill., in 1874. He is a son of James and Ellen ( Charleston ) Ryan, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter having been born and reared partly in Boston, Mass. James Ryan was a son of Patrick Ryan, a native of Ire- land who, after emigrating from the Emerald Isle, settled in Connecticut and later became a pioneer of Ottawa, Ill. Patrick Ryan, with his wife and seven children, moved to Ottawa, Ill., in an early day. Later James and his family went to Nebraska and in 1874 moved to Kansas. Patrick Ryan, grandfather of William, was a very prominent citizen of his county in Illinois. He served as captain of his company of Union soldiers during the Civil war and held the office of county treasurer for several terms, besides filling other impor- tant county offices. James Ryan, the father, was also a soldier, holding the position of sergeant in a company forming part of the Fifty-sixth regiment of Illinois volunteers. He was taken prisoner and confined for a time in the notorious Andersonville prison. His trade was that of iron smelter and for thirty years he was employed in the John Seaton foundry in that capacity. His son. William, also became an expert moulder and is now employed in the Seaton foundry.
William Ryan. with whom this review is directly concerned, was but an infant when the family located in Atchison. He attended the old Doniphan school in the city and and also the Washington public school, where he was a school-mate of Sheffield Ingalls. He learned the trade of iron moulder at the Seaton foundry and saved his earnings until he was able to purchase a farm in Walnut township in 1908. He removed to his farm and cultivated it until 1910 and then returned to Atchison. In 1911 he was appointed chief
HISTORY OF ATCIIISON COUNTY
of the . Atchison police department. Previous to his appointment to the head position of the city police force he had served as a member of the city coun- cil and was very active in behalf of a number of public and street improve- ments which were bauly needed at the time. He was one of the official body responsible for the completion of the South Atchison sewer and for the build- ing of a number of paved streets. For his activity in behalf of these public improvements he was defeated for re-election, but some years later Mr. Ryan was again elected to office by a handsome majority. Mr. Ryan has a fine farm of 160 acres in Walnut township which was originally covered with a heavy growth of timber, much of which has been cleared away in past years. Upon his retirement from the position of chief of police he returned to his farm, where he resides while he is employed as iron moulder.
He was married in 1898 to Miss Nellie Cairns, and this union has been blessed with five children : Blanche, born in 1899; Ruth, born in 1901 ; Mary Louise, born in 1903: Hugh, born in 1905: Florence, born in 1910. Mrs. Ryan is a daughter of Irish parents and was born in Atchison.
In his younger days William Ryan was a noted baseball player. He played the left field position on the Atchison team in the first game of base- ball ever played in Forest park. The aggregation of players with whom he was associated were known as the "Corn Carnival Colts." This team became known as the fastest amateur team ever banded together in the city of Atch- ison and became famous over northeast Kansas for their proficiency in the national game. The name was given to the team when they succeeded in defeating the fast "Kansas Blues," a professional team, at the time of the corn carnival held in Atchison. Several players from this team broke into the professional league game and became famous.
JAMES H. GARSIDE.
James H. Garside, retired, is one of the best known and best liked pioneer citizens of Atchison. He has resided in this city for the past fifty-one years and has a large acquaintance throughout the city and county. For thirty-eight years Mr. Garside was engaged in railroad work and for twenty- seven years he served as a member of the board of education and was vice- president of the board which had charge of the erection of the Ingalls High Sclicol building and other school edifices in the city. During the time in which he served as the local freight agent of the Santa Fe railroad Mr. Gar-
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HISTORY OF ATCHISON COUNTY
side's position brought him into contact with all classes of men and his fine courtesy and obliging manner of conducting the company's business won him high regard and an enviable reputation.
Mr. Garside was born in Canton, Fulton county, Illinois, January 26, 1848, a son of Joshua and Anna (Cox) Garside. His father was born in England and immigrated to America in 1836. He became engaged in bank- ing and was a member of the banking firm of Maple, Stipp & Garside, at Canton, until his removal to Nebraska City, where he opened a bank for S. F. Nukols. The family came to Atchison in 1864 and Joshua Garside was associated with A. S. Parker & Company, forwarding agents, and also agents for the Star line of steamers plying between St. Joseph and St. Louis. This firm later became Garside & Son and did an extensive freighting business to Denver, Salt Lake and Montana points. They shipped a vast amount of grain by river steamer; a single boat used in their freighting sometimes took on from 3,000 to 10,000 bushels of grain and lay at the levee two or three days while loading. This was in the days when the Missouri river was the great waterway for transporting freight to southern and eastern points. Joshua Garside and wife reared a family of two sons and seven daughters, of which James H. was the eldest.
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